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~ Mr. Coon, because that particular 
- ducks a sporting chance. However, 

is perfectly legal, and not only is it 
PAGE 4 4 
Ducks 
~ Must eS 








































Plant Food: 
This Spring — 
Duckhunting was fair for 
the most part during the last |: 
season, but you _ probably 
heard a lot of talk of there be- 
ing only a few ducks in the 
country, and that ‘the season 
should be changed.” Have you 
ever stopped to think that 
_ there may have been a reason 
other than the weather and the 
time of the season, why there 
_weren’t plenty ducks on your fa- 
vorite lake? More than likely the 
ducks didn’t find sufficient food 
to make their stay in your neck of 
the woods of any appreciable 
length of time. ' i 
‘Wm, O. Coon, naturalist, and 
one of America’s foremost author- 
ities on ducks and their feeding 
grounds, gives here some informa- 
program. 
tion that every duckhunter should 
know and put into practice, if he 
_ wants good hunting next fall. You 
can’t do anything now about hunt- 
ing last fall, but you most certain- 
ly can about next fall. You won’t 
have to put out much money or 
effort, either. But “you do have to 
do something,” and that is—pro- 
vide food. 
Speaking of providing food, 
there is but one legal way to do 
this. It is illegal to use commercial 
grains in any way to attract wild 
ducks for shooting purposes, says 

form of shooting does not give the 
the use of natural wild duck foods 
permitted, but the federal govern- 
ment and various state conserva- 
tion departments highly recom- 
mend it, because’ the planting of 
natural wild duck foods is consid- 
ered an act of conservation. It 
helps to establish thé. necessary 
feeding grounds to support the 
~wild ducks over their various 
_ routes of migration. It provides 
feed not only during the shooting 
season, but prior to and after the 
“shooting season. In this way it 
helps materially in maintaining our 
supply of migratory water fowl 
and the perpetuation of a great 
sport, Mr. Coon said. 
Wild Ducks Must Eat 
Ducks and Their Food Given 
THE FISH-CULTURIST NEWS 

MALE 
BUFFLEHEAD 
MALE 
FEMALE _ 
PINTAIL 
. Indeed he can see farther than you 
One may have a wonderful pond 
or water area and a wonderful lo- 
cation right near the flyway. How- 
ever, it takes something more than 
just water to attract wild ducks. 
Do you know a wild duck has 
what is termed as a telescope eye? 
can and also has the advantage of 
being up in the air. Asa matter of 
fact, he can see right down into 
the waters and observe what’s 
growing there, sort of like you can 
see farther into the water from an 
airplane than you can from the 
surface. ‘ 
In observing the habits of wild 
ducks, first in importance is to 
find out what they are most con- 
cerned about. Apparently there are 
three fundamentals that concern 
them. First, to find food; second, 
security or protection from their 
enemies, and third, to reproduce. 
When they are reasonably sure of 
the first two, food and protection, 
they themselves will take care of | 
the third. 
Nature has taken care of all of 
her wild creatures but man has 
come along and disrupted the 
works of nature in many instances, 
thus making it more difficult for, 
in this instance, the wild ducks to 
survive. Many of their natural 
habitats have been 
However, these wild ducks, having 
been given the means and instinct 
to migrate, enables them to seek, 
new areas where’ they find a suit- 
- able living condition. 

|The shoal-water ducks, called “puddle-ducks” include 
such as the Mallard, Black Duck, Pintain, Teal, Gadwall, 
Baldpate, Wood Duck, and European Widgeon. Out of nearly 
200 stomach contents examined, I find that, for example, the 
Mallard is very partial to wild rice in the Northern states. He 
eats a great deal of pondweed (Potamogeton) seed, plenty of 
bulrush (Scirpus) seed and lots of coontail, particularly in the 
Southern states. The Black Duck eats the pondweeds, also 
-wild rice and bulrush seed, some wild celery, naias, smart- 
weed, burreed, and others. Pintail are very fond of wild duck 
millet. The teal ducks also go for this food. In general, here 
is a group of shoal-water duck foods: Wild rice, smartweed, 
bulrush, burreed, naias, pondweed (several species), water 
shield, frogbit ducksmeat, pickerel plants, wapato duck po- 
tato, wampee duck corn, coontail, chufa, and salicornia. Space 

of miles in search of good feeding 
grounds and when they locate a 
suitable place, large numbers will 
congregate and stay as long as the 
food lasts or the season will per- 
mit. Therefore, the number of wild 
ducks at your favorite shooting 
grounds is governed by the natural 
foods that grow there to attract 
them. If, by chance, the natural 
food supply is inadequate, it might 
be a worthy suggestion to plant it 
there and thus have more wild 
ducks and better shooting. 
Different species of wild ducks 
feed upon different kinds of wild 
food plants..From examinations of 
destroyed. |wild ducks stomachs, taken in vari- 
ous parts of the country, it has 
been observed that each kind of 
wild duck is very partial to two or 
three certain foods that sort’ of 
represent their main dinner course, 
Wild ducks migrate thousands |then there are several others that 
are like the side-dishes, sort of 
“fill-ins’”” to complete the meal. 
Variety Needed 
A variety of natural wild duck 
foods in a water area has a marked 
advantage over the area that has 
only one food. Several kinds at- 
tract different species of wild 
ducks. The variety also holds them 
for a longer visit, for some food 
plants produce earlier and others 
later in the season. 
Some species of wild ducks are 
more partial to certain types of 
water area while other species pre- 
fer adverse kinds of water condi- 
tions. 
There are those that obtain their 
food only in the shallow waters or 
marsh areas, known as ‘marsh 
ducks’ or ‘puddle ducks.’ These 
kinds seldom ever dive beneath 
the water for their food, they just 
tip up and reach to bottom to ob- 
whe 
FEBRUARY, 1944 




does not permit the listing of each species of wild duck and 
his principal food. 
In regard to the diving ducks, these include the Canvas- 
back, Redhead, Bluebill, Ruddy Duck, Ring-Necked Duck, 
Golden Eye, Bufflehead, etc. The Canvasback is more or less 
named after his favorite food, the wild celery. The scientific 
name of the Canvasback is Nyroca Valisineria, whereas the 
scientific name of wild celery is Vallisneria Spiralis. He likes 
wild celery and sago pondweed better than anything. Here 
are some of the other principal foods of the diving ducks: 
Redhead grass, brownleaf pondweed, muskgrass (chara), 
naias, water smartweed, deep water duck potato, banana 
waterlily, submerged ducksmeat, coontail, and, of course, the 
wild celery and sago pondweed and several others of lesser 
importance. 

tain the seeds and roots that they 
like best. Other kinds prefer to 
dive for their food and feed in 
from three feet to 15 feet of water. 
These, known as ‘‘divers” go to the 
bottom, and, taking their favorite 
food plant by the base of the plant, 
pull it from the soil and bring: it 
to the water’s surface where they 
rest and eat. 
You Can Help Nature 
As nature has provided, to pre- 
vent the destruction of the food 
plants when the wild. ducks pull 
them from the soil, there are hi- 
bernating buds attached to the 
parent plant by brittle roots which 
easily break, leaving many buds 
in the soil to replenish the growth. 
Therefore the natural food plants 
are permanent, and reproduce from 
year to year unless by their natur- 
al enemies or some unusual condi- 
tion, they are destroyed. 


Nature is very complete in her 
works but slow in progress. There 
are natural wild water plants that 
are important as wild duck food, 
adapted to almost every water con- 
dition that exists, but there are 
many water areas that are lacking 
in certain species of vegetation. 
Perhaps the time would eventually 
come when some wild duck would 
drop an undigested seed or per- 
haps a Blue Heron may drop in 
with a seed stuck to his foot. This 
jlone seed’ must grow and repro- 
duce and it may take years in na- 
ture’s progress for that growth to 
thus become established. 
Science has taught us how to 
assist nature. Seeds can be intro- 
duced, thus saving many years of 
nature’s time. Following the ad- 
vance of agriculture, we observe a 
similarity in growing vegetation 
in the waters, to that of the up- 
(See No, 3, bottom page 5) 
